Frank Ocean has celebrated the 10th anniversary of his seminal studio album Channel Orange with new episodes of Blonded Radio.
Channel Orange was became an instant classic upon its release on July 10th, 2012, catapulting the R&B singer-songwriter to superstardom. A decade later, Ocean has marked the album’s big anniversary by dropping two episodes of his Apple Music 1 radio show.
The first episode, “blonded LSD”, sees Ocean speaking with Dr. James Fadiman about microdosing, accompanied by an instrumental score produced by the artist playing in the background. The second episode, “blonded ENERGY!”, features Ocean discussing self-realisation and the ancient practice of Qi Gong with Master Mingtong Gu.
You didn’t really expect Frank Ocean to celebrate the 10th anniversary of an album in a traditional way, did you? You can listen to both episodes here. As well as dropping the new Blonded Radio episodes, Ocean also updated his official website with new Channel Orange merchandise.
Ocean last released a Blonded Radio episode last December, featuring a chat with the Dutch motivational speaker Wim “Iceman” Hof. The Christmas episode also contained nine minutes of unreleased music.
“Me and @iceman_hof had a conversation some time ago when I was in the earlier stages of grief. I remember marveling at how his energy blasted through the phone. So much vim in his wim,” Ocean said in an Instagram Story at the time. “We spoke for a while about his work, the purpose of grief, and how going into the cold water changed his life.”
Last month, unearthed footage of Ocean performing at his high school graduation ceremony went viral. In front of a huge audience of family and fellow classmates, Ocean, going by his real name Christopher Breaux then, can be seen soulfully but nervously singing the school’s alma mater song. It’s believed to be the earliest available footage of the artist.
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